Pokémon (sometimes shortened to PKMN) is a children's media fanchise developed by Nintendo. Jews, Christians and Muslims have accused the franchise of containing many violent themes and subliminal messages. Also the concept of Pokémon evolution was claimed to be against the Biblical creation account in Genesis (Even throught the evolution found in Pokémon is more akin to metamophosis). It was related by the ChildCare Action Protect to the theory of evolution. However it was stated by the Vatican that the Pokémon Trading Card Game and video games are "full of invetive imagination" and that they don´t have any harmful moral side effects. The "Chistian Power Cards game was introduced in the US in 1999 by David Tate, who stated that "Some people aren´t happy with Pokémon and want an alternative, others just want christian games." It was identical to the Trading Card Game, except it used Biblical figures.

Nintendo had to stop manufacturing the Japanese version of the Trading Card called "Koga's Ninja Trick" because it had a "manji", which is a traditionally Buddhist symbol that has no negative connotations. The Jewish civil rights group Anti-Defamation League, however complained because the manji was the reverse of a swastika, which Jewish people consider offensive. The cards were originally intented for sale in Japan only, but Pokémon's popularity led them to be imported to the US, with approval from Nintendo. The Anti-Defamation League understood that the issue symbol was not intented to be offensive and acknowledged the sensitivity that Nintendo showed when they removed the product.

Pokémon cards and games were banned in Saudi Arabia in 2001, alleging that the franchise promoted Zionism by displaying the Star of David in the Trading Cards, and involved gambling, which is a violation of Muslim doctrine. Pokémon has been accused of promoting materialism.

In 1999, Nintendo was sued by two 9-year old boys who claimed that the Trading Card game was the reason for their problematic gambling.

More than 635 Japanese children were hospitalized because of epileptic seizures on December 16, 1997. It wa determined that the seizures were caused by watching an episode of the Pokémon anime called Computer Soldier Porygon, which contained bright explosions with rapidly alternating blue and red colours. In subsequent research it was determined that the strobing light effects could causes some indivuduals to have epileptic seizures even if they have had no previous history of epilepsy.

In March 2000, Nintendo was sued by Morrison Entertaiment Group, which is a small toy developing company based Manhattan Beach, California, claiming that Pokémon infringed on their "Monsters In My Pocket" characters. However, a judge ruled that there was no infingement so Morrison appealed the ruling in 2001.